Housemate saw surfboard bags with red liquid but thought it was rusted water, court hears

Jesse Baird’s housemate didn’t know she was looking at bags with Baird and his partner’s dead bodies, when she took a photo of oozing surfboard covers the night of their alleged murders, a court has heard.

Beau Lamarre-Condon, 31, has been accused of fatally shooting Baird and Luke Davies with his police service weapon in Baird’s Paddington home on 19 February 2024. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter.

Baird’s housemate, known to the court under the pseudonym Belinda Smith, said she returned home from work on the evening after the shootings and went out to the courtyard to check on her washing after a day of heavy rain.

There, she saw “two surfboard bags with a blue tarp over the top of them and red liquid”, she told the trial on Thursday.

Smith took a photo of the liquid and sent it to their other housemate, known to the court under the pseudonym Sarah King. The photo was shown to the jury on Thursday.

Asked what she thought the liquid was, Smith told the court she believed it was “rusted water from the outdoor furniture”.

Asked by crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC if Baird had ever spoken to her about surfing or if she had seen a surfboard in their house, she confirmed she had not.

“You had no reason to suspect there was anything else in those surfboard bags?” he asked.

Smith responded: “no”.

In early 2024, relations had soured between Baird and his two housemates after they asked him to move out so one of their friends could take their spot. Baird eventually agreed and told their house group chat he would be moving out on 20 February 2024 Baird and Davies were fatally shot on 19 February. But when Smith left for work on the morning of the 20th and saw Baird’s belongings had not been packed up, Smith sent a message to King that read: “I’m genuinely scared this dude isn’t moving out today”.

A message was then sent from Baird’s phone to their housemate group chat claiming he had hired someone to collect his things and that he “might be doing a road trip to Perth with my mates”.

Smith responded she was “confused” and asked him to have his room emptied because cleaners would be arriving the following day. A response from Baird’s phone asked what time the cleaners had been booked. Afterwards, a number of Baird’s items were removed from his room.

By 22 February, the surfboards had been cleared and the liquid was gone, Smith told the court.

Baird and Davies’ bodies were eventually found in two surfboard bags five days later on the fence line of a rural monastery in Bungonia.

The defence lawyer John Stratton SC said during his opening statement that Baird and Davies were fatally shot in “self-defence” after struggles with the policeman. Lamarre-Condon immediately began cleaning up the scene because he “panicked”, the jury was told.

The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.